British Islamists Threatened Violence

Terrorism usually comes like a bolt from the blue, but not so the four explosions last week in London, killing at least 50. Some British Islamist leaders have been warning for months that such violence was imminent.

An Islamist British group called Al-Muhajiroun (Arabic: “the immigrants”) for some time publicly stated that the United Kingdom was immune from Islamist violence because of its acceptable behavior. In an April 2004 conversation, the 24-year-old head of Al-Muhajiroun's Luton branch, Sayful Islam, announced that he supports Osama Bin Laden “100 percent” in the quest to achieve “the worldwide domination of Islam.”

Toward this end, Sayful Islam endorsed terrorism in Great Britain. “When a bomb attack happens here, I won't be against it, even if it kills my own children…. But it is against Islam for me to engage personally in acts of terrorism in the UK because I live here. According to Islam, I have a covenant of security with the UK, as long as they allow us Muslims to live here in peace.” He further explained. “If we want to engage in terrorism, we would have to leave the country. It is against Islam to do otherwise.”

Covenant of security? What is that? In an August 2004 story in the New Statesman, “Why terrorists love Britain,” Jamie Campbell cited Mohamed Sifaoui, author of Inside Al Qaeda, that it has long been recognized by the British Islamists, by the British government and by UK intelligence agencies, that as long as Britain guarantees a degree of freedom to the likes of Hassan Butt (an overtly pro-terrorist Islamist), the terrorist strikes will continue to be planned within the borders of the UK but will not occur here.

Campbell draws from this the perversely ironic conclusion that “the presence of vocal and active Islamist terrorist sympathizers in the UK actually makes British people safer, while the full brunt of British-based terrorist plotting is suffered by people in other countries.”

Omar Bakri Mohammed, a Syrian immigrant to the UK who headed Al-Muhajiroun, then confirmed the covenant of security, telling about companions of the Prophet Muhammad given protection by the king of Ethiopia. That experience, he told Campbell, led to the Koranic notion of covenant of security: Muslims may not attack the inhabitants of a country where they live in safety. This “makes it unlikely that British-based Muslims will carry out operations in the UK itself.”

But in January 2005, Omar Bakri Mohammed determined that the covenant of security had ended for British Muslims because of post-9/11 anti-terrorist legislation that meant “the whole of Britain has become Dar ul-Harb [the Abode of War, the territory open for Muslim conquest].” Therefore, “the kuffar [population of unbelievers] has no sanctity for their own life or property.”

The country had gone from safe haven to enemy camp. To renew the covenant of security would require British authorities to undo that legislation and release those detained without trial. If they fail to do so, British Muslims must “join the global Islamic camp against the global crusade camp.”

Omar Bakri Mohammed went on overtly to threaten the British people: “The response from the Muslims will be horrendous if the British government continues in the way it treats Muslims,” explicitly raising the possibility of suicide bombings under the leadership of Al-Qaeda. Western governments must know that if they do not change course, Muslims will “give them a 9/11 day after day after day!”

When Sean O'Neil and Yaakov Lappin of the London Times asked Omar Bakri Mohammed about his statements on the covenant, Bakri said his definition of Britain as Dar ul-Harb was “theoretical” and he provided a non-bellicose re-interpretation:

It means that Muslims can no longer be considered to have sanctity and security here, therefore they should consider leaving this country and going back to their homelands. Otherwise they are under siege and obviously we do not want to see that we are living under siege.

In a less-guarded moment, however, Omar Bakri Mohammed acknowledged that for him, “the life of an unbeliever has no value.”

Last week's explosions mark the end of the “covenant of security.” Let's hope they also mark the end of an era of innocence, and that British authorities now begin to pre-empt terrorism rather than wait to become its victims.

Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and the author of several books, most recently Militant Islam Reaches America. You may visit his website by clicking here and purchase his books by clicking here.

Daniel Pipes is director of the Middle East Forum and the author of several books, including Militant Islam Reaches America and In the Path of God: Islam and Political Power (Transaction Publishers), from which this column derives.

Subscribe to CE(It's free)

More on Catholic Exchange

Connect

CE Shop

This page is having a slideshow that uses Javascript. Your browser either doesn't support Javascript or you have it turned off. To see this page as it is meant to appear please use a Javascript enabled browser.